Met Him Halfway
by RainneCassidy
Summary: He's been fidgety all day, and he's driving her nuts.


He had been fidgety all day – much more so than usual. He played with her elephants, he tapped his feet, he pulled her figurative pigtails. He cracked inappropriate jokes, drew silly pictures on the corners of the murder board. She finally banned him from the coffee machine just after noon, and by three she was getting ready to send him home just to get him out of her hair.

"What _is_ it with you today?" Kate finally demanded, rounding on him after he actually hit her in the back of the head with a paper airplane.

Rick had the grace to look abashed. "I don't know," he said. "I'm just… jittery."

"Well, quit jittering," she snapped. "Take your Ritalin or something."

He sighed. "I'm sorry."

She continued to glare at him for a long moment, but he looked so contrite that she finally sighed as well, her shoulders relaxing. She dropped into her chair and studied him across the corner of her desk. "What are you so jittery about?" she asked. "Have you got something coming up that I forgot about?"

"Nooooo…" he drew the word out so long that she knew he was racking his brain, trying to think whether something was coming up that _he'd_ forgotten about. "I don't think so, anyway," he finally admitted, pulling his phone out. She watched him poke it with his thumbs, until he shook his head. "No, nothing. I don't know. Must be the weather."

She turned and glanced out the window at the currently raging thunderstorm. "You know," she observed, "normal people get restless when the weather's _nice._"

"When have I ever done normal, Detective?" he asked, grinning.

"Fair point," she conceded. Then she reached over and ruffled his hair. "If you have that much spare energy, go get me a cup of coffee. But none for you – you're still restricted to decaf!"

He chuckled. "Yes, ma'am."

As he disappeared into the break room, her teammates came up on either side of her, each leaning against a side of the murder board. "He's off the chain today," Esposito noted.

"He's driving me insane," Kate groused. "I'm ready to tie him up and gag him."

Ryan snorted, and Kate rolled her eyes. "Move on," she advised him.

"From what?" asked a voice that Kate was surprised to hear. She turned to see Lanie leaning on the side of her desk, smirking at her.

"What are you doing here?" Kate inquired. "Run out of bodies down at the morgue? I can have a fresh one for you in about thirty seconds."

Lanie laughed. "Took off early to come get my man. Got a thing tonight."

Kate raised an eyebrow. "A _thing_?"

"Yeah. You know," Lanie replied. "A thing. Appointment, gig, meetup, rendezvous, engagement."

"I thought Castle was the walking thesaurus," Kate teased.

Lanie's lips twitched. She started to say something when the phone on Kate's desk rang. Kate picked up the receiver. "Beckett."

It was the desk sergeant from downstairs. "Detective Beckett, it's Joe Gleason on the desk. I just need your clearance for a visitor."

"Who's the visitor?"

"Says he's your dad. I.D. reads James Beckett. He's with Alexis Castle and Mrs. Rodgers."

Her eyebrows drew together. "Uh – yeah, Joe, send them on up." She hung up and looked at Lanie in some confusion. "My dad's here. He never comes here. And he's with Alexis and Martha."

The elevator opened a moment later, disgorging the three visitors. Martha, as usual, made her entrance first, followed by the other two. Jim Beckett's arm was wrapped familiarly around Alexis's shoulders, and the young girl's eyes were sparkling. "Hey, Kate," Alexis greeted her. "Hi Lanie, hi guys."

"Katie," her father said, as she came over to hug him. "I was in the area, so I thought I'd see if you wanted to go have dinner. I bumped into Alexis on the sidewalk – literally – and we thought we'd make it a fivesome, if you haven't strangled her dad yet today. If you have, we'll just make it a foursome." He grinned.

"Sure, I guess," Kate said, glancing at her watch and absently hugging Martha as well. "But I'm not off for another hour and a half."

"Oh, we can wait," Alexis assured her. "Your dad's just been telling me all kinds of embarrassing stories about when you were my age." She beamed, her eyes sparkling, and Kate couldn't help but laugh.

"I actually don't mind him telling _you_ those stories," she allowed. "It's when he tells them to your dad that I start getting worked up."

"Don't worry, darling," Martha assured her, patting her shoulder. "I have plenty on him that I'll be happy to share with you."

"Well, we've gathered a crowd while I've been making you coffee," Rick's voice said from behind her. "It seems like the gang's all here."

"Martha and Alexis and my dad want us to go for dinner," Kate told him, taking her coffee cup. "They said they'll wait until five."

"Oh, of course," Rick replied. "Megu? I'll call and get us a table."

"Ooh," Alexis said. "I love their oriental salad."

Rick reached into his pocket for his phone. Kate set her coffee down and started to turn back to the murder board, but paused when he reached out and grasped her left hand. "Wait," he said.

She raised an eyebrow. "What _now_, Fidgety?"

"Kate," he said softly, in a tone he never used with her at the precinct, "I have to ask you something."

The room went deathly silent. Kate felt her face pale and her eyes grow wide. All their friends. Both of their families. Everyone just _happened_ to be right there at exactly that moment. Her hands started to tremble.

He smiled down at her like his own knees weren't shaking. "Kate," he said, still in that soft, intimate tone, "you know I love you more than my own life. Since I've known you… it's like I've become a whole new person. Everything we've done, everything we've been through together, I wouldn't change a second of it." He swallowed hard. "And since we've been _together_, the last few months have been some of the happiest of my life, and I'm pretty sure you feel the same way."

She felt her eyes begin to fill with tears as he went smoothly to one knee. "Katherine Beckett, will you do me the inestimable honor of becoming my wife?"

The tears spilled over, and she couldn't speak around the lump in her throat, but she nodded, and he reached into his jacket pocket, pulling out what may have been the most beautiful diamond engagement ring Kate had ever seen. His own hands were trembling as he slipped the ring onto her finger – she could feel them.

Once the ring was seated, he drew her hand to his mouth and kissed her fingers gently, and she wrapped her hand around his, pulling him to his feet and throwing herself into his arms while their audience burst into applause, several of them surreptitiously – or, in Martha's case, dramatically – wiping away tears.

"I love you, Richard Castle," she whispered into his ear as he held her tightly.

"And I love you, Kate Beckett," he whispered back. "So much."

He finally let her down, holding her close to him and grinning like a Cheshire cat at their assembled friends and family. "The party's at Opia at six," he advised them. "See you all there?"

"Wouldn't miss it, bro," Esposito replied. "Especially 'cause Lanie would kill me if I did." He nodded at Kate.

Ryan laughed. "I just have to go pick up Jenny and change clothes." The two men clapped Castle on the shoulder as they left, Kate breaking from his embrace long enough to hug Lanie when she went with them.

"Well," Castle said, "why don't we head home and get ready?"

"That may be the second-best idea you've had all day," Kate agreed. He leaned down to kiss her then, and she met him halfway.

_Author's note: I do not ordinarily post my stories to this site, as a great deal of my work is rated MA/NC17. If you would like to read more of my work, please feel free to visit me at xdawnfirex-fic (dot) livejournal (dot) com._

_I appreciate any and all feedback._


End file.
